Monthly Archives: January 2018

Booklist: Travel, Psychology, World history, Food, Anthropology, (Auto)biography, Cults, Religion

More booklists Travel & Science A Wulf.  The Invention of Nature: The adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the lost hero of science. R Conniff. The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth R Sapolsky. A … Continue reading

Posted in Book List | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Booklist: Travel, Psychology, World history, Food, Anthropology, (Auto)biography, Cults, Religion

Toxic algae slime spreading quickly across the earth

2017-8-19. Ocean Slime Spreading Quickly Across the Earth. Craig Welch, National Geographic. Toxic algae blooms, perhaps accelerated by ocean warming and other climate shifts, are spreading, poisoning marine life and people. When sea lions suffered seizures and birds and porpoises … Continue reading

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Fisheries, Oceans, Water Pollution | Comments Off on Toxic algae slime spreading quickly across the earth

Vaclav Smil on wood

[ I’ve extracted bits about wood from Smil’s book about materials below, read the book for the larger context.  Enormous amounts of wood were used in former civilizations with much smaller populations than today, so it’s clear we can’t go … Continue reading

Posted in Vaclav Smil, Wood | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Threats to America’s drinking and sewage treatment infrastructure

[ Here are a few of the points made in this 170 page document about improving the nation’s water system security (excerpts follow): There are many potential threats to water infrastructure, including terrorism, failure of aging infrastructure, flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, … Continue reading

Posted in CyberAttacks, Disease, Terrorism, Water Infrastructure, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Threats to America’s drinking and sewage treatment infrastructure

American Arsenal: A Century of Waging War by Patrick Coffey

Source: www.compoundchem.com/2014/05/17/chemical-warfare-ww1 Preface. These are my notes from “American Arsenal: A Century of Waging War” (2013) by Patrick Coffey . Absolutely horrifying, especially chemical warfare. Here’s the publishers weekly blurb of what this book is about: “Science historian Coffey surveys … Continue reading

Posted in War Books | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Department of Homeland Security bioterrorism risk assessment

[So much of this was calculus calculating odds that very little of this document was extracted. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer and “Crunch! Whole Grain Artisan Chips and … Continue reading

Posted in Terrorism | Tagged | Comments Off on Department of Homeland Security bioterrorism risk assessment